Send a live stream to an external CDN provider from Wowza Streaming Cloud

Originally Published on 01/16/2017 | Updated on 10/18/2018 10:30 am PDT

The Wowza Streaming Cloud™ service offers a multitude of playback options: a hosted page and player, playback over Apple HLS and Adobe HDS URLs, and the capability to broadcast streams on social media sites like Facebook and YouTube. You can also use an external, third-party CDN to deliver streams to viewers.

You can send a live stream to an external CDN provider by using a custom stream target in Wowza Streaming Cloud. A custom stream target is a third-party endpoint that you connect to so that it can deliver your transcoded H.264 stream to viewers using its own edge network or resources.

Create the live stream

In Wowza Streaming Cloud, click the Live Streams menu and then click Add Live Stream.

Click the Live Streams menu, and then click Add Live Stream.

On the Live Stream Setup page, enter a Live Stream Name, choose a Broadcast Location, and then click Next.

On the Video Source and Transcoder Settings page, select the encoder or camera you want to use to connect to Wowza Streaming Cloud.

Specify other video source settings, click Next, and complete the steps to finish creating the live stream.

Notes:

If you plan to also deliver your live stream using a Wowza Streaming Cloud hosted page, specify the options on the Playback Settings page and, on the Hosted Page Settings page, select Yes, you want Wowza Streaming Cloud to host a webpage that plays back your video. Otherwise, disregard these pages and options. They don't matter if you're delivering the stream to viewers only through your external CDN provider.

For more information on live stream settings, see the Help panel on the right side of each page.

Wowza Streaming Cloud creates the live stream and displays the Overview tab of the live stream detail page.

Configure the stream target for the highest-bitrate output

Next, add a custom stream target for your CDN provider and attach it to the highest bitrate output rendition of your live stream.

The Outputs & Targets tab of the trancoder's detail page lists all of the output renditions for your live stream. Wowza Streaming Cloud created them based on the aspect ratio of the source video that you specified in the live stream wizard.

The output renditions are listed from highest to lowest resolution. The first output is the highest-bitrate rendition.

Click the Add a Stream Target button for the highest-bitrate output rendition and choose Custom.

On the Create a custom stream target page, enter a descriptive Target Name.

Specify the details of your CDN provider so that Wowza Streaming Cloud can connect to it. Consult your CDN provider's documentation if you need help with these values.

Primary URL – The RTMP ingest URL of the target, without the preceding protocol and without the trailing slash (/). For example, [domain-or-ip-address]/[EntryPoint]. Hostnames can't contain underscores (_).

Backup URL – The backup RTMP ingest URL of the target, entered without the preceding protocol and without the trailing slash (/).

Stream Name – The name of the stream as defined in your target's ingestion settings.

Note: When adding a custom Akamai target, the Stream Name must be in the format [stream_name]_[angle]_[bitrate]@[stream_id], for example, akamaistream_1_[bitrate]@12345. For help determining the Stream Name for other CDN providers, see their documentation.

Target Username – The name or ID that your target uses for RTMP authentication.

Target Password – The password that's used with your Target Username for RTMP authentication. Enter it in the Confirm Target Password field, too.

Adobe HDS Playback URL – (Optional) The web address that your target uses to play Adobe HDS streams. You can include it here for informational purposes.

Apple HLS Playback URL – (Optional) The web address that your target uses to play Apple HLS streams. You can include it here for informational purposes.

RTMP Playback URL – (Optional) The web address that your target uses to play RTMP streams. You can include it here for informational purposes.

Click Add.

Assign the target to the other output renditions

Now assign the target to the other, lower-resolution output renditions for the live stream.

For the next output rendition in the list, click the Add a Stream Target and then click Existing stream target.

In the Assign a Stream Target window, select your custom stream target from the list and then click Assign Stream Target.

Repeat Steps 1 and 2 for the remaining output renditions for your live stream.

(Optional) If you're not using them, delete the default targets that Wowza Streaming Cloud created automatically for each output rendition.

Configure, connect, and test your video source

Finally, connect the configured live stream to the source encoder or camera and test the setup.

Select the live stream or its transcoder to view its detail page.

Click Start Live Stream or Start Transcoder at the top of the page.

Click the confirmation button to start the stream or transcoder.

Wowza Streaming Cloud opens the stream and connects with the video source.

Start your video source.

In Wowza Streaming Cloud, confirm that the stream is working by looking at the Video Thumbnail on the Overview tab of the live stream or transcoder detail page.

The Video Thumbnail displays a frame from the live stream every five seconds. The started date and time appear at the bottom of the thumbnail. Connection, transcoding, and delivery metrics begin to update in the Statistics panel.

Check playback at your CDN by viewing the stream at the provider's playback URL.

Click Stop Live Stream or Stop Transcoder at the top of the detail page to end your test stream, and then stop the video source.

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